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Experience designer and ZERO1 Biennial artist Nelly Ben Hayoun, the International Space Orchestra (ISO), and BECK will be performing tonight to a sold out crowd at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall for ‘Song Reader’ Issue by POP-UP MAGAZINE and MC SWEENEY’S. Blending space science, planet-poking and bluegrass-playing spacecraft operators, the world’s first orchestra composed of space scientists.

The International Space Orchestra, composed by scientists from NASA Ames and the SETI Institute, will be performing Ground Control: An Opera in Space. The production was inspired by Apollo 11’s control rooms and debuted last summer in San Jose at the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial. The project’s mission was to draw attention to space science at the most monumental time in its history. An exciting new era of private space travel and exploration is underway, fuelled by commercial space companies such as Virgin Galactic, Space X and Google, and projects such as near-earth asteroid mining and sending humans to Mars orbit are being discussed as realities for the 2030s. Created and directed by Ben Hayoun, Ground Control features music by Arthur Jeffes (Penguin Cafe), Damon Albarn (Blur and Gorillaz), Bobby Womack, Richard Russell, Maywa Denki (Otamatone inventor), and with lyrics by Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic. The ISO is conducted by Grammy-award winner composer Evan Price.

This is only a stepping-stone for Ben Hayoun as she has many projects on her plate including joining the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) as their designer in residence. Check out more on Nelly Ben Hayoun and ISO on www.groundcontrol-opera.com.

TEASER: Ground Control: An Opera in Space. Performed in front of the world largest windtunnel at NASA Ames Research Center